Risk, returns & timeframes illustration
1 min read
October 11, 2022
by
Regan Pearson

Subscription cheat-mode đŸ‘ș

Most of us probably wouldn’t steal
 but turns out more than half of us may have cheated on a subscription service. From Netflix to Amazon, Stitch Fix to gaming, loads of us are dabbling in the global cheating scandal. But which generation seems to have opted out of the cheat’s game?
Risk, returns & timeframes illustration
1 min read
October 11, 2022
by
Regan Pearson

Subscription cheat-mode đŸ‘ș

Most of us probably wouldn’t steal
 but turns out more than half of us may have cheated on a subscription service. From Netflix to Amazon, Stitch Fix to gaming, loads of us are dabbling in the global cheating scandal. But which generation seems to have opted out of the cheat’s game?
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You wouldn’t steal a car. You wouldn’t steal a television. But apparently more than half of you naughty things would happily cheat on a paid subscription service given half the chance. According to a survey by PYMNTS.com, 60% of people who subscribe to a retail subscription service admit to at least occasionally gaming the system.

Retail subscriptions like Amazon’s (AMZN) ‘Subscribe and Save’, and clothing retailer Stitch Fix’s (SFIX) subscription clothing box, exploded in popularity during Covid while we were bored and isolated at home. 🏡 But as cost pressures start to bite, many of us have taken to repeatedly milking introductory offers and discounts. Cheating tactics vary from creating multiple accounts to access those intro deals, to guessing discount codes. However, one of the more common ways people admitted to cheating was scoring referral benefits by donning a fake moustache and referring to themselves under new email addresses. 🧔

Is 2022 turning into ‘the year of cheating’? While Netflix (NFLX) was off counting the 100 million households they estimate are cheating on their service, the world of chess has been grappling with their own huge cheating scandal, which is anything but black and white. ♟ Pop rocker Adam Levine has allegedly been trying to make cheat moves too, with ‘cringe’ Instagram DMs. Speaking of having no game, cheating in video games is getting so bad that last month game makers Electronic Arts (EA) announced a new kernel-level anti-cheat system for their PC games to stop hackers and cheaters ruining the game for the rest of us.

Is the internet to blame? Probably. According to the PYMNTS.com survey, the one group least likely to cheat on a subscription are baby boomers and seniors. Only 16% of boomers admitted to cheating on subscription services. ‘Though whether that was because of ethics or a lack of tech-savvy skills preventing boomers from turning on cheat-mode was unclear. 😛

Regan Pearson
Finance writer
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Linkedin

We’re not financial advisors and Hatch news is for your information only. However dazzling our writing, none of it is a recommendation to invest in any of the companies or funds mentioned. If you want support before making any investment decisions, consider seeking financial advice from a licensed provider. We’ve done our best to ensure all information is current when we pushed ‘publish’ on this article. And of course, with investing, your money isn’t guaranteed to grow and there’s always a risk you might lose money.

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